Neurolixis is a biopharmaceutical company focused on novel drugs for the treatment of human central nervous system diseases. Neurolixis Inc. was founded in 2011 and is managed by two pharmaceutical industry professionals, Mark A. Varney, PhD and Adrian Newman-Tancredi, PhD, DSc. The company's therapeutic focus is on CNS disorders including Parkinson's disease, neurological orphan disorders, depression and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. The company has offices in Southern California and in France. In September 2013, Neurolixis announced that it had in-licensed two clinical-phase drugs from Pierre Fabre Laboratories, a French pharmaceutical company. The drugs are targeted to the treatment of dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease and to breathing deficits in Rett syndrome, respectively. Neurolixis has been awarded a series of research grants by the Michael J. Fox Foundation to undertake research examining the effects of novel, highly selective and efficacious serotonergic drugs targeting 5-HT1A receptors in brain regions relevant to therapeutic properties in Parkinson's disease. The Michael J. Fox Foundation subsequently announced that it was supporting proof-of-principle studies on befiradol in models of Parkinson's disease and showcased Neurolixis in its Partnering Program. In January 2018, the British charity Parkinson's UK announced that it had awarded Neurolixis a grant to advance development of befiradol up to clinical phase in Parkinson's disease patients. In March 2019, Neurolixis announced that the US Food and Drug Administration gave a positive response to Neurolixis' Investigational New Drug application for befiradol to be tested in a Phase 2 clinical study in Parkinson's disease patients with troublesome Levodopa-induced dyskinesia. F-15599 was awarded Orphan Drug Status by the United States Food and Drug Administration in October 2013 and Orphan Medicinal Product designation by the European Medicines Agency in March 2014. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Bristol, Neurolixis has been awarded a grant by the InternationalRett Syndrome Foundation to study F-15599 in animal models of Rett syndrome. In June 2015, Neurolixis was awarded a grant by the Rett Syndrome Research Trust to advance F-15599 to clinical development.
